Experienced chicks show biased avoidance of stronger signals: an experiment with natural colour variation in live aposematic prey

Experienced chicks show biased avoidance of stronger signals: an experiment with natural colour variation in live aposematic prey
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DOI:
10.1023/a:1006741626575
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发表时间:
1999-01-01
影响因子:
1.9
通讯作者:
Tullberg, BS
Tullberg, BS
中科院分区:
环境科学与生态学3区
文献类型:
--
作者:
Gamberale-Stille, G;Tullberg, BS

文献摘要

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理解无利可图的猎物警示颜色进化的一个重要因素是捕食者泛化行为产生的协同效应。如果更显眼的猎物受益于捕食者之前与不太显眼的猎物的相互作用,则警示颜色可能会在独居猎物种群中出现并变得稳定。本研究以形状相似但颜色不同的三种种小虫幼虫为材料,研究家鸡(Gallus Gallus Home Ticus)是否表现出对活的无节育猎物的偏颇概括。在经历了可食用棕色猎物的正面体验后,在两个相互的实验中,小鸡得到了负面体验,要么是略红的反感幼虫,要么是更红的反感幼虫。然后,攻击鸟类被分成两组--一组再次被给予相同的猎物,另一组被给予较少红色或更多红色的幼虫。仅有可食用猎物经验的鸟类在两种非食源性猎物类型的攻击概率上没有差异。有较少红色猎物的鸟类偏向于回避,从而在较高程度上避免了红色较多的猎物,而有较多红色猎物的鸟类避免了相同颜色的猎物,但不是较少的红色。因此,我们得出结论,鸟类捕食者确实可能表现出一种有偏见的泛化行为,这种行为可以选择并稳定孤立猎物的无位置策略。
An important factor for understanding the evolution of warning coloration in unprofitable prey is the synergistic effect produced by predator generalisation behaviour. Warning coloration can arise and become stabilised in a population of solitary prey if more conspicuous prey benefit from a predator's previous interaction with less conspicuous prey. This study investigates whether domestic chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus) show a biased generalisation among live aposematic prey by using larvae of three species of seed bugs (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae) that are of similar shape but vary in the amount of red in the coloration. After positive experience of edible brownish prey, chicks in two reciprocal experiments received negative experience of either a slightly red or a more red distasteful larva. Attacking birds were then divided into two treatment groups, - one presented with the same prey again, and one presented with either a less red or a more red larva. Birds with only experience of edible prey showed no difference in attack probability of the two aposematic prey types. Birds with experience of the less red prey biased their avoidance so that prey with a more red coloration was avoided to a higher degree, whereas birds with experience of the more red prey avoided prey with the same, but not less red coloration. Thus, we conclude that bird predators may indeed show a biased generalisation behaviour that could select for and stabilise an aposematic strategy in solitary prey.